Success Quote by Romano Prodi

Power rarely announces itself as greed; it shows up as caution. Prodi's line is blunt in a way seasoned statesmen can afford: it strips the euphemisms off institutional behavior and names the two most reliable motivators inside any bureaucracy - job security and the ability to decide. The specificity matters. "Lose their job" evokes the personal, almost domestic fear that haunts politics as much as any private workplace: mortgage, reputation, the humiliation of being replaced. "Cede the power they've acquired" shifts from survival to status, suggesting that even when salaries are safe, people cling to leverage because leverage is how you avoid becoming disposable.

The subtext is a quiet theory of reform failure. Policies don't stall only because they're bad or unpopular; they stall because they threaten someone's role in the chain of command. It's an unsentimental diagnosis aimed at the machinery of parties, ministries, EU institutions - the very ecosystems Prodi moved through as Italian prime minister and European Commission president, where grand visions (integration, modernization, austerity, liberalization) are negotiated by actors who have rational incentives to slow-walk change.

The intent isn't to moralize; it's to explain. Prodi offers a map for anyone naïve enough to think politics is mainly about persuasion. It's also a warning to reformers: if you want movement, design exits, compensations, and face-saving narratives. People can be argued out of an opinion; they're much harder to argue out of a paycheck or a fiefdom.